Hello, my name is Erin.
This tutorial shows how to create headings in Microsoft Word.
First, we’ll look at how to create headings using Word’s built-in styles.
Then, we’ll look at how to customize Word’s built-in heading styles to your preferred styles
such as font, font size, and color.
Plus, we’ll conclude with a brief discussion on why using heading styles is important for usability and accessibility.
Today I’ll be using Word for Microsoft 365.
These steps are the same for Word for Mac
and the one-time purchase versions of the software back to Word 2013.
To begin creating a heading using Word’s built-in styles,
first select the text you want to turn into a heading.
Or, move your cursor to a blank line where you want to type your new heading in just few moments.
Next, select the Home tab in the ribbon.
And then select the appropriate heading level in the Styles group.
Word includes nine heading levels, although only a few will appear in your Styles group when you open a new document.
Additional heading levels will appear after you use higher-level headings.
For example, Heading 3 will appear after you use Heading 2.
The selected text will be formatted with the new heading style immediately.
If you didn’t select existing text earlier, type your new heading text after making your selection.
Finally deselect the heading and then press the Enter key on a PC
or Return key on a Mac to move your cursor to the next line.
The heading formatting will turn off automatically.
Now we’re going to look at how to customize the built-in heading styles in an individual Word document.
There are many ways to change styles in Word.
So, for the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll stick with the basics such as font, size, and color.
To begin, select the Home tab in the ribbon.
Then, PC users should right-click and Mac users should Control-click the heading level in the Styles group,
and then select Modify from the shortcut menu.
When the Modify Style dialog box appears, make the desired modifications in the Formatting section.
Today I’m going to change the font
font size
and font color.
When you’re finished with formatting,
PC users should select "Only in this document" to ensure that your customized style is limited to your current document.
Conversely, Mac users should make sure that "Add to template" is not selected
to limit your customized style to your current document.
Both PC and Mac users should ensure that "Automatically update" is not selected.
If "Automatically update" is selected, you won’t be able to edit the styles of individual same-level headings.
Finally, select the OK button.
Your changes should be applied to all existing text using the heading style you just customized.
And of course, save your file to save your changes.
You can make any text in Word look like a heading by using a large font size.
However, you won’t have access to several important features
if you use a large font size rather than Word’s official heading styles.
For example, Word’s heading styles let you create automatic and custom tables of contents.
Create bookmarks in PDFs using Adobe Acrobat.
As well as use Word’s outline feature, and use Word’s Navigation pane
Most importantly, screen reading software can identify your heading hierarchy based on Word’s styles.
If you only use a large font size for headings instead of heading styles,
people who use screen readers will have less information about how your document is organized.
If you would like to take your Word headings even further,
please see my related tutorials “How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Microsoft Word,”
And, “How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Word for Mac.”
Plus, in another tutorial coming soon, we will look at how to add and customize heading numbers.
Please see the complete list of all my Word tutorials in the playlists
titled “How to Use Microsoft Word” and “How to Use Word for Mac,” which are linked in the description box below.
All the steps we just performed are listed with images on erinwrightwriting.com,
along with all my other writing-related software tutorials to help you succeed at work and in the classroom.
Feel free to leave me a comment if there’s a specific topic that you would like me to talk about in the future.
And please subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss upcoming tutorials.
And give this video a thumbs-up if you found it helpful.
Thank you so much for watching!
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